A central problem in designing and implementing a data transmission system is simultaneous transmission and reception of signals from several simultaneous users such that the signals interfere with one another as little as possible. Because of this and the transmission capacity used, various transmission protocols and multiple access methods have been used, the most common especially in mobile phone traffic being FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access) and TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), and recently CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access).
CDMA is a multiple access method based on a spread spectrum technique, and it has been recently put into use in cellular radio systems in addition to previously used FDMA and TDMA. CDMA has many advantages over the prior methods, such as simplicity of frequency planning, and spectrum efficiency.
In a CDMA method, a narrow-band data signal of a user is multiplied to a relatively broad band by a spreading code having a much broader band than the data signal. Band widths used in known test systems include e.g. 1.25 MHz, 10 MHz and 25 MHz. The multiplication spreads the data signal over the entire band to be used. All the users transmit simultaneously on the same frequency band. A different spreading code is used on each connection between a base station and a mobile station, and the signals of the users can be distinguished from one another in the receivers on the basis of the spreading code of the user. If possible, the spreading codes are selected in such a way that they are mutually orthogonal, i.e. they do not correlate with one another.
Correlators in conventionally implemented CDMA receivers are synchronized with a desired signal, which they recognize on the basis of the spreading code. In the receiver the data signal is restored to the original band by multiplying it by the same spreading code as in the transmission step. Ideally, the signals that have been multiplied by some other spreading code do not correlate and are not restored to the narrow band. In view of the desired signal, they thus appear as noise. The object is to detect the signal of the desired user from among a number of interfering signals. In practice, the spreading codes do correlate to some extent, and the signals of the other users make it more difficult to detect the desired signal by distorting the received signal. This interference caused by the users to one another is called multiple access interference.
The situation is especially problematic when one or several users transmit with a considerably greater signal strength than the other users. These users employing greater signal strength interfere considerably with the connections of the other users. Such a situation is called a near-far problem, and it may occur for example in cellular radio systems when one or several users are situated near the base station and some users are further away, whereupon the users that are situated closer blanket the signals of the other users in the base station receiver, unless the power control algorithms of the system are very fast and efficient.
The reliable reception of signals is problematic especially in asynchronous systems, i.e. systems where the signals of the users are not synchronized with one another, since the symbols of the users are disturbed by the several symbols of the other users. In conventional receivers, filters matched with the spreading codes, and sliding correlators, which are both used as detectors, do not function well in near-far situations, however. Of the known methods the best result is provided by a decorrelating detector, which eliminates multiple access interference from the received signal by multiplying it by the cross-correlation matrix of the spreading codes used. The decorrelating detector is described in greater detail in Lupas, Verdu, ‘Linear multiuser detectors for synchronous code-division multiple access channels’, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 123-136, January 1989; and Lupas, Verdu, ‘Near-far resistance of multiuser detectors in asynchronous channels’, IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. 38, April 1990. These methods, however, also involve many operations, such as matrix inversion operations, that require a high calculating capacity and that are especially demanding when the quality of the transmission channel and the number of the users vary constantly, as for example in cellular radio systems.
Channel equalization is a promising means of improving the downlink receiver performance in a frequency selective CDMA downlink. Current research encompasses two types of linear equalization, namely non-adaptive linear equalization and adaptive linear equalization. Non-adaptive linear equalizers usually assume “piece-wise” stationarity of the channel and design the equalizer according to some optimization criteria such as LMMSE (Least Mininum Mean Squared Error) or zero-forcing, which in general leads to solving a system of linear equations by matrix inversion. This can be computationally expensive, especially when the coherence time of the channel is short and the equalizers have to be updated frequently. On the other hand, adaptive algorithms solve the similar LMMSE or zero-forcing optimization problems by means of stochastic gradient algorithms and avoid direct matrix inversion. Although computationally more manageable, the adaptive algorithms are less robust since their convergence behavior and performance depend on the choices of parameters such as step size.
The art still has need of an equalization procedure that is robust and does not consume a great deal of computation power.